December Office Hours

Before coming to China, we had no idea the diversity that exists in this country of 1.3 billion people.  At least three of the 55 minorities (as well as the Han majority) are represented in this group of 13 students... the mustachioed young man in the center of this photo is from the Uyghur ethnic group... he speaks four languages, including Arabic ("so that he can read the Quran")... it has been fun this week!!

December Coffee House

Sophomores perform during the Open Mic segment of the December Coffee House "Beginnings and Ends"

Decorating for Christmas

With the help of the eight pictured below, we got the place ready for the BIG December 25th Birthday Party, baked some cookies, and had a great little chat over tea and goodies...

Really cool getting to tell the story to college students who've really never heard it before!

Our decorating crew (L2R): David, Eleanor, Greg, Elizabeth, Grace, Victoria, Vicky, Eddy, Echo, Sherlock

1000-year-old Egg

Word got out during Grace's Office Hours this evening that neither she nor I had yet tried this popular choice... the four pictured insisted on treating us to dinner on the third floor of the North Canteen (one of seven cafeterias on campus.)
There are many ways to enjoy the preserved eggs; in the version we ate, they were cut into small chunks and cooked with rice porridge to create "century egg and lean pork congee"
(Chinese: 皮蛋瘦肉粥; pinyin: pídàn shòuròu zhōu).

Grace in Action

Managed to get a picture of my girl as she wrapped up her fourth hour of instruction today... she was working with these sophomores on the conditional perfect tense, which doesn't exist in the Chinese language and seems especially hard for them to learn!

Wednesday's English for Special Purposes class at dinner time (just before the 6:00 p.m. bell)... do they look hungry?